Arkham

Updated on Dec 09, 2023

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Arkham (/ˈɑːrkəm/) is a fictional town situated in Massachusetts. It is a dark city and an integral part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft, and it is featured in many of his stories and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers.

Arkham House, a publishing company started by two of Lovecraft's correspondents, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, takes its name from this city as a tribute.

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In Lovecraft's stories

Arkham is the home of Miskatonic University, which figures prominently in many of Lovecraft's works. The institution finances the expeditions in both At the Mountains of Madness (1936) and The Shadow Out of Time (1936). Walter Gilman, of "The Dreams in the Witch House" (1933), attends classes at the university. Other notable institutions in Arkham are the Arkham Historical Society and the Arkham Sanitarium. It is said in "Herbert West—Reanimator" that the town was devastated by a typhoid outbreak in 1905.

Arkham's main newspaper is the Arkham Advertiser, which has a circulation that reaches as far as Dunwich. In the 1880s, its newspaper is called the Arkham Gazette.

Arkham's most notable characteristics are its gambrel roofs and the dark legends that have surrounded the city for centuries. The disappearance of children (presumably murdered in ritual sacrifices) at May Eve and other "bad doings" are accepted as a part of life for the poorer citizens of the city.

Location

The precise location of Arkham is unspecified, although it is probably near both Innsmouth and Dunwich. However, it may be surmised from Lovecraft's stories that it is some distance to the north of Boston, probably in Essex County, Massachusetts.

A more recent mapping of Lovecraft Country reinforces this suggestion, with Arkham being situated close to the location of Gordon College; in Lovecraft's work this would presumably be replaced by Miskatonic University itself. The real-life model for Arkham seems to be, in fact, Salem, its reputation for the occult appealing to one who dabbles in the weird tale.

Arkham Sanitarium appears in the short story "The Thing on the Doorstep" and may have been inspired by the Danvers State Insane Asylum, aka Danvers State Hospital, located in Danvers, Massachusetts. (Danvers State Hospital itself appears in Lovecraft's stories "Pickman's Model" and The Shadow over Innsmouth.)

Lovecraft's fiction

Note: dates are the year written.

Arkham first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House" (1920)—the story is also the first to mention "Miskatonic".

It also appears in other stories by Lovecraft, including:

"Herbert West–Reanimator" (1921–22); first story to mention "Miskatonic University"

"The Unnamable" (1923)

"The Silver Key" (1926)

"The Colour out of Space" (1927)

"The Dunwich Horror" (1928)

"The Whisperer in Darkness" (1930); Albert N. Wilmarth is described as a folklorist and assistant professor of English at Miskatonic University.

At the Mountains of Madness (1931); one of the ships is named Arkham

The Shadow over Innsmouth (1931)

"The Dreams in the Witch House" (1932)

"Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (1932–1933)

"The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933); first to mention "Arkham Sanitarium"

"The Shadow out of Time" (1934–1935)

Other authors

Arkham also appears in the Cthulhu Mythos tales of other writers since Lovecraft's death. Among them:

Bloch, Robert. "The Creeper in the Crypt" (1937)

Brennen, Joseph Payne. "Forringer's Fortune" (1975)

Brunner, John. "Concerning the Forthcoming Inexpensive Paperback Translation of the Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred" (1992)

Campbell, Ramsey

"The Tomb Herd" (1986)

"The Tower from Yuggoth" (1986)

Jens, Tina L. "In His Daughter's Darkling Womb" (1997), mentions "Arkham Industries"

López Aroca, Alberto. Necronomicón Z (Spanish novel published by Ediciones Dolmen, 2012)

Lumley, Brian. The Transition of Titus Crow (1975)

Price, Robert M. "Wilbur Whateley Waiting" (1987)

Shea, Michael. The Color out of Time (1984)

Smith, Clark Ashton. "I Am a Witch" (19??)

Thompson, C. Hall. "The Will of Claude Ashur" (1947)

Wilson, F. Paul. "The Barrens" (1990)

Howard, L. Jonathan. "Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute" (2011)

Other appearances

Arkham is the setting for all of the stories in the 2006 anthology Arkham Tales published by Chaosium.

In the novel The Arcanum, Lovecraft himself is said to have been involved in solving a case involving a witch cult in Arkham.

In the novel The Atrocity Archives, a philosopher is attracted to Arkham due to the "unique library" there.

In the novel The Jennifer Morgue, the occult branch of the American intelligence community, code-named "Black Chamber", is headquartered in Arkham.

Arkham appears in "The Collect Call of Cathulhu", episode 32 from season 2 of The Real Ghostbusters (October 27, 1987), when members of the Ghostbusters go to Miskatonic University to get information on how to stop Cthulhu.

In the DC Universe, Arkham Asylum is a high-security asylum for dangerous psychopaths where many Gotham City supervillains, including the Joker, are kept under guard. The name was picked by editor Jack C. Harris and writer Dennis O'Neil in an homage to Lovecraft. There is also a graphic novel titled Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. In the fictional universe, it was run by the Arkham family, namely Amadeus Arkham, giving it its name.

The Batman: Arkham series of stealth action game has the Arkham Asylum Mental Health Care Facility as its first main setting.

Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure board-game themed around H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The game has players exploring the town of Arkham as they attempt to stop unmentionable horrors from spilling into the world.

Splatterhouse takes place in the setting of Arkham, Massachusetts.

Hip Hop group Common Market (band) wrote a song called "Escaping Arkham" one of five songs on the album "The Winter's End EP".

References

Arkham Wikipedia

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